


Conlang Dialogue: The 100, Episode 708

by Dedalvs



Series: Conlang Dialogue: The 100 (CW) [70]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Conlang, Trigedasleng
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:00:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 70
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25174993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dedalvs/pseuds/Dedalvs
Summary: This is the created language dialogue from episode 708 of the CW'sThe 100. (Please note: This post contains spoilers for episode 708 ofThe 100.)
Series: Conlang Dialogue: The 100 (CW) [70]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1348846
Comments: 10
Kudos: 17





	Conlang Dialogue: The 100, Episode 708

NIYLAH  
Clarke, who is he?

TRANSLATION  
_Klok, chon em bilaik?_

CLARKE  
The bunker you lived in for six years. This is the crazy cult leader who built it.

TRANSLATION  
_Bonka weron yo’n shak op sis yiron. Dison laik koken hedswisha seda don stan em op._

NIYLAH  
How did you understand that?

TRANSLATION  
_Ha yu na ge’da’n in?_

CALLIE (IN PROTO-TRIG)  
Your fight is over.

TRANSLATION  
_You gun-playin’ still all done._

**Author's Note:**

> If you watched episode 708, the backdoor pilot to the potential prequel series for _The 100_ , and you've been following Trigedasleng for a bit, you're undoubtedly going to have a lot of questions. I'll try to anticipate and answer as many as I can.
> 
> First, it will help to remember that I was hired in between seasons 1 and 2—I was not a part of the show from the beginning—and that what you've seen in the latter seasons, in terms of new characters and plot arcs, wasn't planned at that time. This is the scenario I was given: There are humans in America (near D.C.) who survived the nuclear apocalypse. They speak a language that is noticeably distinct from English—but also familiar enough that English-speaking viewers will recognize some of it. There's been about 100 years between the apocalypse and the time of the show, and the apocalypse was our time plus 40 odd years. Also, all of these survivors seem to speak English fluently (that was canon from season 1).
> 
> That's a difficult position to be in, but recall that based on what we saw in season 1, they didn't need to have me on the show _at all_. Anyway, it was a fun exercise, and the result was Trigedasleng—mostly as you know it. (In truth, the original version I developed was different—it pushed the envelope further. Trigedasleng as it exists is a compromise between me and the writers at the time.) I hypothesized a potential scenario that led to the creation of the language, but it was rather informal. The hypothetical scenario was that _if_ humans survived, but there aren't, like, billions of people on the planet, it stands to reason that some groups were more successful than others. Perhaps one of these groups developed a code to be able to distinguish themselves from outsiders—to tell who was in the group and who wasn't (imagining a doomsday society, it seemed like this might be a useful thing). This gave me license to change the meanings of words radically, while, at the same time, allowing me to apply more or less standard sound and grammar changes to English and blend the two: the code and usual language evolution.
> 
> That backstory was _the_ backstory, more or less, for a few seasons, but as you can see, it lacks a lot of detail. It was more of a launching point.
> 
> At some point in time, Jason got an idea for how the series was going to end, and came up with the idea for a prequel, which necessitated revisiting the origins of Trigedasleng (after all, the prequel would be going to its birth). The most important details are laid out in this episode. Among them is that Callie Cadogan is herself a conlanger, and _consciously_ created a language.
> 
> That changes things quite a bit from where Trig. started. First off, I had always imagined that Trig. would have been associated with a group like the Second Dawn—not a splinter group from the Second Dawn. At least, that was what I imagined at first. This, though, still works. More importantly, though, if you look at Trigedasleng as a language, it _really_ is modern English with some sound changes, some grammatical changes, and some lexical quirks. Its content doesn't approximate something a beginning conlanger would create. (That is, most conlangers, when starting out, get a bit more _creative_ , rather than modifying their own language.)
> 
> The big question: With this origin revealed, would I have done the same thing with Trigedasleng? The answer is no. It would have been _far_ different. It would have looked like a beginning conlang that had actually been adopted by a group of speakers and turned into a full language. It would likely be largely a priori.
> 
> Having said that, something like that wouldn't have matched the expectations and desires of the writers back in the summer between seasons 1 and 2, so I'm not sure if I could have done something like that. An origin like this one wasn't anticipated at that time, so they certainly wouldn't have asked for something like that. And as a secondary observation, would the fans have responded to that kind of thing the way they did to Trig.? Somehow I doubt it. I certainly don't regret it.
> 
> The episode itself has one surviving line of the Proto-Trig I half-created, but there were more lines (including lines by Lucy, played by _Defiance_ veteran and friend Nicole Muñoz!). I'm grateful that they were cut. If this moves forward as a series, I want that freedom. I think creating that linguistic situation will be an interesting project, and I think I'll be able to bring in more of Callie's original a priori conlang. (After all, just because most of her words didn't survive doesn't mean they were never there!)
> 
> In short, I like this origin story. Had I known it ahead of time, I would've done things differently, but I also don't regret what we have in Trig., and don't think it unnecessarily complicates things moving forward. We'll see if there's a next chapter!


End file.
